The Rwandan ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stanislas Kamanzi, was the guest speaker at the 11th AUN-Atiku Institute lecture held in the Auditorium on Thursday, November 18, 2021. He spoke on the topic: 'Progress in Rwanda Since the Genocide Against the Tutsi.'
Ambassador Kamanzi took the full-capacity audience through the challenging and decisive steps the Rwandan leadership took to steer the East African country from the tragedy of the genocide into fast-paced socio-economic development. Before his presentation, a video clip of Rwandan President Paul Kagame narrating the country鈥檚 restoration and rapid transformation journey was aired and applauded by members of the audience.
Ambassador Kamazi explained Rwanda's predicament immediately after the genocide, which claimed over a million lives from April to July 1994.
"Beyond the tragedy of the genocide itself was a total collapse of the nation. Rwanda as a nation no longer existed and that meant something beyond just territory. There were no institutions of state, the citizens were totally divided and disillusioned, and there was need for something to be done".
Moving forward from that point required bringing the people together to forge a common united front. It also required giving justice to survivors.
"You might imagine how difficult it was for people to be together when on one side were victims and survivors, and on the other were those who made (the genocide) happen. There was need for justice for people to heal, to feel they belong, and that justice was not going to come easily because there were no institutions of state to address that, no courts or judges".
Gacaca, the ambassador said, became the only realistic option to dispense justice and reconciliation. Gacaca was a traditional justice and alternative resolution system which met the goals of delivering justice and reconciling aggrieved Rwandans. One key feature of Gacaca as a justice system, he said, was that it made reconciliation possible by establishing where the decision-making lay, who did what, and who gave the orders.
In the end, Mr. Kamanzi said, four broad-based categories were established and around which justice was pronounced: the masterminds of the genocide, who planned and executed the killings; the people without previous criminal records who participated in the genocide; the people who took part in the killings but did not kill anyone directly, and, lastly, was people who partook in vandalism but not in the actual killing. Each category of offender received the justice they deserved, according to the principles of Gacaca.
Through Gacaca, a fusion of traditional alternative and formal justice systems, Rwandans were able to confess their involvement, get punishment, and forgive one another, and ultimately move with national reconstruction, he said.
President Margee Ensign, who has written on the subject, noted that after the genocide, Rwanda could have chosen to stay in conflict; instead, the country's leadership braved the hardship to put in place programs through which Rwanda has made extraordinary progress in the past 27 years.
President Ensign quoted the World Bank, which ranks Rwanda as the second most accessible place to start a business in Africa in 2020.
"Rwanda is a popular tourist destination now, has more women in parliament and is using technology in innovative and important ways," the President said.
Other giant strides recorded by Rwanda include:
- Rapid economic growth and poverty reduction
- Constitutional provisions that promote gender equity
- Education 鈥� innovative use of information technology, tolerance-based curriculum, and merit-based system to heal a nation
- Health 鈥� community-based insurance, high rates of immunization; rapid declines in infant and maternal mortality rates.
听"The progress recorded by Rwanda since after the genocide is quite extraordinary and unprecedented," the President said.